54.3 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Valley Center Project To Bring 632 Homes

A $400 million housing and commercial development that will transform the face of Valley Center in San Diego’s North County is taking shape on land that was once a dairy farm.

Covering 186 acres, Park Circle will include 632 homes, a 33,700 square-foot retail center, three private recreation centers, eight miles of trails, a community garden and seven acres of parks including a 2.6 acre public park.

“It’s going to change the look of Valley Center,” said Jeana Boulos, a member of the Valley Center Planning Group.

Tradeoffs

“It will definitely change the overall sense of the community, maybe of it being just agriculture or rural,” Boulos said. “It will definitely bring in more people who aren’t here for the rural aspect but at the same time, a lot of that will be preserved.”

Despite the change, Park Circle will be an asset to the community because it will give people a place to shop so they don’t have to make the trek to Escondido and it will provide housing at a price more people can afford, Boulos said.

“It’s going to be a good addition to housing in the community because right now, you really don’t see many homes available to buy under $500,000,” Boulos said. “Everything’s in the mid to high $500,000s, $600,000s to $700,000s — maybe to $800,000.”

Park Circle will give people who grew up in Valley Center a place where they can afford to live, she said, and the retail center will provide needed jobs.

Developed by Touchstone Communities based in San Diego, Park Circle will have townhomes and single family homes priced from the mid-$400,000 to the mid-$700,000, said Kerry Garza, president of Touchstone Communities.

“Valley Center has forever been an area with large lots and low density housing,” Garza said. “This is going to bring housing for middle class families at an attainable price for young couples and empty nesters and everywhere in between.”

Designed by Summa Architecture of Bonsall and Tim Jachlewski of In-Site Landscape Architecture Inc. of San Diego, the project also will include 52 deed restricted affordable homes that Garza said will sell in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.

“These are not shacks. These are three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom homes that look like all the other homes with amenities and two-car garages,” Garza said.

Park Circle will have two clubhouses — one of which will be centered on younger families with a pool, spa and play area, Garza said.

The Park

At the center of the development is a circular public park from which the development takes its name.

Park amenities will include an event stage, barbecues, tot lots, sports courts, bocce ball and horseshoes.

“We expect our community to be hosting annual events like Fourth of July celebrations and Memorial Day and those kinds of things,” Garza said.

He said the development will pay homage to the property’s history as a dairy farm with a play structure that looks like a cow and hoof prints and tractor tracks in the sidewalks.

In developing plans for Park Circle, Garza said he wanted to produce something that would fit in with the character of Valley Center.

“The last thing we wanted to do was go into Valley Center and build a Tuscan Village. It just wouldn’t fit,” Garza said.

Completion Forecast for Spring 2020

Grading work started on the site in June, with a grand opening tentatively set for the spring of 2020.

Millennials — people in the late 20s and 30s — are the likely buyers of Park Circle homes.

As they start raising families, they’re drawn to communities where they can buy a house with a backyard that still has places to hangout and for their children to play, Garza said.

Garza envisions Park Circle as a new downtown for Valley Center.

“There’s nothing there. I knew for us to attract people to Valley Center, we had to bring the shopping and entertainment,” Garza said.

Although the Community Planning Group supported the project, William Del Pilar, a Planning Group member, said his preference was for the property to remain undeveloped.

The Park Circle site at the northwest corner of Valley Center Road and Mira de Valle was home to Konyn Dairy, which went out of business in 2008.

“I don’t like these buildings coming in,” Del Pilar said. “There’s nothing good about it. We don’t want the growth.”

Winning Approval

Nevertheless, Del Pilar said he voted to approve the project because it falls within the zoning and development guidelines set by the county and Garza worked with the community in planning what to build.

“It’s not that I was for the project but this guy went above and beyond,” Del Pilar said.

Previous projects by Touchstone Communities listed on the company’s website include development of a master planned community on 656 acres in Indio with 1,354 homes, development of more homes on a 23-acre site in Palm Springs, and construction of a mixed use project in La Mesa with 56 apartments and 2,500 square feet of retail space.

The company also has two pending mixed-use projects in Escondido listed on its website.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-